Lies of Omission

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Thursday, February 8, 2018

A Citizen of the Republic

The citizens of a republic must bear an enormous burden. The weight and future of the nation rests solely on their shoulders. Unlike their many counterparts around the world, who consider themselves to be subjects of the king, or comrades of the state, the citizen of a republic owes his allegiance solely to the rule of law. The law is created by the people themselves through their legislators and other citizens are hired to ensure that those laws are obeyed by all equally.

Despite the fact that many politicians today use the term "democracy" in reference to the political system of the United States, nothing could be further from the truth or more intentionally misleading. The citizen of a democracy owes his allegiance solely to the majority opinion, that is a recipe for all sorts of abuses and tyranny of the majority. The distinction is important. A republic defends the interests of the minority against the will of the majority through the rule of law.

That all of this went off the rails a hundred years ago during the progressive era of the early 1900's, does nothing to the underlying responsibility of the people to rectify it. The condition of the American citizen, who is now disregarded, defamed and ignored by the powerful bureaucracies of the federal government is commonly laid at the feet of the failure of the Constitution, but the Constitution is no better or worse than those charged with its defense, the people themselves. No one said that self-government was going to be easy, in fact, it should be the most laborious of all systems. It is not enough to simply fly the American flag on the 4th of July.

The Tea Party, inspired by the economic collapse of 2008, sought to hold their representatives accountable for the excesses of the banking system that simultaneously caused the meltdown and was the greatest beneficiary of it. The further unconstitutional acts of the Obama Administration only infuriated the Tea Party. But, where the Tea Party failed was in a single question: What if replacing representatives, even on a wholesale scale, does nothing to redress the grievances?

The federal government of the United States operates largely on the efforts of non-elected bureaucrats contemptuous of the people and their representatives. Changing a few figureheads through elections does nothing to restore liberty, or restrain the excesses of government.

The bureaucrats are in response to a people who have decided to look to the government for solutions to all sorts of problems; some people get sick from something they ate and the response is to create the Food and Drug Administration; children aren't performing in schools and the response is to create the Department of Education; some criminals flee across state lines to avoid capture and the response is to create the Federal Bureau of Investigation. All of these solutions have created the problems we have today, with an FBI running amok, intransigent and above the law, believing themselves to actually BE the law and powerful enough to deny the citizens any leader that might hold them accountable. They will use the tools given them to defend the law to manipulate elections to deny any politician that might seek to restrain them or reform their bureaus.

Government now acts as the princes and lords of a mythical king. The American people can only look to themselves for a solution to problems this big. The progressive era ushered in a century ago began the long trek towards the overthrow of the republic. Now that the metamorphosis to collectivism is nearly complete the people find themselves at the mercy of people like Comey, Strzok and Mueller, enabled by people like Obama and Clinton.

It will not fix itself. One can watch breathlessly while crimes are uncovered and treason is unmasked, but no one in Washington anticipates that the criminals will go to prison or the traitors will be executed, because all of the actors in this play are the masters, not the slaves. They are not the lowly citizens of a defunct republic.

But, I urge you, as the only legitimate source of political power in a republic, the citizen, to exercise that power. Demand prison for the criminals and executions of the traitors with the full understanding that if you do that, it will initiate a civil war, because a third of your fellow citizens have already embraced that new collectivist state. It is evident in the Bernie Sanders voters who sought to formalize the socialist/communist state the republic has drifted toward over the past several decades. Your fellow citizens are already complicit in the death of the republic and will not help you save it. Do not act now, as a citizen of the republic, and you will embrace the collectivist state yourself.

Most of those reading this will opt for leisure instead of work and consign themselves to the recognition of themselves as part of the collective, but others will take up the shovel with which to bury the collectivist state. There is time to see if Trump and Sessions can rise to the occasion and fulfill the role God has laid out for them as defenders of the republic, but a citizen of the republic should do so while preparing their gear.